


what a small universe

by ashmes



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family, Gen, Revelations, Season/Series 05 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-26 08:45:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13854177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashmes/pseuds/ashmes
Summary: It only makes sense he meets his mother smacked right in the middle of a Blade of Marmora mission. Shit like this just happens to Keith Kogane.





	what a small universe

**Author's Note:**

> GOD I LOVED VOLTRON SEASON 5!!!! Keith's mom reveal is something I've been looking forward to since I learned he was an orphan and Galra and have been waiting patiently and then BAM. I loved every moment of it.
> 
> If you haven't watch season 5 yet beware because this is SUPER SPOILERY! Also it's been forever since I wrote a gen fic and it's been so nice and surprisingly quick to write. Anyway, I wrote this really quickly and used word to check for mistakes, so sorry if there's any grammatical/spelling errors. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!!!!

What Keith expected meeting his birth mother would be like: words cutting and his own shouts ringing through his ears. Hot tears sliding down his cheeks as he told her off in one of the different versions he’s cultivated in the past eighteen years.

It only makes sense he meets his mother smacked right in the middle of a Blade of Marmora mission. Shit like this just happens to Keith Kogane. It’s half-expected at this point, because when life in space has been a little too quiet for Keith, the universe loves to throw him a curveball to turn everything into scattered pieces of shards of glass with Keith trying not to cut himself on.

Except, this—Krolia standing in front of him, staring at him like he’s a missing piece returning back to her, someone she knows without a hitch of doubt—is a little much. Even for him.

“You’re my…” Keith drifts off halfway through his sentence, his tongue feeling far too heavy for his mouth. He knows what he wants to say, but his brain is still attempting to catch up with the rest of his body. “You—“

“Your mother,” she finishes without missing a beat. It’s fact. Probably the reason why his body does a weird combination between a physically painful lurch and his head swimming as if he’d flown through a hundred different asteroid belts without a scratch. “Yeah, I know. It’s a little overwhelming for me too if I’m being honest.”

“Seeing the kid you abandoned without any warning,” Keith crosses his arms over his chest, finally letting his back rest against the paneling of the ship as it flies off. The words are his, Keith knows the sound of his voice to his own ears, but the combination of words leaves him on some mental disconnect. “I can imagine.”

Krolia does a strange combination of her brows furrowing and her nose twitching, but doesn’t give any further response and starts to unload her gear. Watching her has Keith’s stomach turning to stone, recognizing the exact same look from when Lance had surprise selfie’d with him months ago before he left for the Blade. The exact same pinch of their forehead and identical curves of their mouths. It’s uncanny.

He has to fight the groan building in the depths of his chest at the realization of just how long it took him to connect the dots until the truth came into focus. _Of fucking course_.

It’s only when Krolia grunts does Keith’s head snaps up, and watches her stare down at her leg in distaste as if she had knocked her knee into the corner of the ship instead of cut lining across her thigh.

“You’re hurt,” Keith says after swallowing, fighting off the internal roll of his eyes from how obvious his words are. All he can focus on is how the fabric surrounding the wound is darkening the longer he stares at it.

“Tends to happen in my line of work believe it or not.” Her words have the corner of Keith’s mouth twitching upwards, but before he can dwell on this he forces his mouth into a frown. Whether or not Krolia notices this is up in the air. “If you’d like, emergency supplies are hidden in the second to last panel. Hidden caches will save your life.”

“Not giving up your weapon will save your life too,” Keith suggests as he searches for the emergency supplies. “Fun fact.”

Weirdly enough, this conversation is probably the most normal interaction he’s ever had with his mother. This is the punch line to the joke of Keith’s life written by the universe.

Krolia laughs, quiet, restrained and seeping with exhaustion, but Keith stills with the case of emergency supplies anyhow and wishes he had more strength than he has right now. “You have a fire in your heart _and_ in your words,” she says, as solemn as a voice can be after being filled with laughter only a few seconds ago. “I don’t know why I’m so surprised.”

“Makes sense you’re surprised about learning anything about me,” Keith points out, taking a seat across from her. When her gaze is directly on it, he can’t help but suddenly feel self-conscious, all too aware of himself and of her. “Considering you didn’t stick around to get to know me.”

The silence lasts as long as it takes for Keith to pour the equivalent of Galra alcohol onto a rag and dab it at her wound. Krolia doesn’t even flinch, and Keith feels a strange surge of pride at the knowledge of where his high pain tolerance comes from.

“That’s fair,” Krolia replies, voice carefully neutral. He wonders if he’s this complicated to read to everyone else as she is to him. “I’m assuming you have plenty of questions.”

“Pretty good assumption,” Keith replies, much calmer as he focuses on cleaning the wound instead of her eyes mirroring back into his. As tempting as it may be, Keith knows his throat will close and any ounce of self-respect he has for himself will crumble in a moment. “Will you answer whatever I ask honestly? Even if they’re hard?”

“Even if they’re hard,” she confirms with a nod, Keith catching the movement from his peripheral. “You want to know why I left.”

Keith doesn’t make any objection. For most of his time on earth, that had been the question floating around in his mind, following him like a shadow: _Why did his own flesh and blood leave him_?

It’s one of those occurrences in life that shapes a person for the rest of their lives, with Keith not realizing how much an action done upon him would make up his personality, his choices, the way he thinks. They’re the only two in the ship, Trogg long behind them, and he feels this moment settling into his bones. Every moment of Keith’s life has built up to this, to discover parts of him he didn’t have a chance to uncover himself, and it’s all within arms length too. 

“No,” Keith says softly with a shake of his head, grabbing a bandage to wrap around her freshly cleaned wound. “I want to know how you knew I was your son.”

For the first time since they escaped, Keith glances up to his mother’s eyes and doesn’t crumble at the sight of her. He bites the inside of his cheek to keep his bottom lip from wobbling.

“You don’t forget your child,” Krolia says, eyes never wavering from Keith’s own, and he can’t tell whether he’s grateful for that act alone or not. “The moment I saw you again, I knew. You look like…”

“I look like what?” Keith furrows his brows.

“Exactly like him,” Krolia finishes slow, swallowing hard. She looks far more in pain than the cut on her leg ever implied. “You look like him.”

Neither of them says anything afterwards. _Like him_ , Keith repeats in the back of his mind, and really it doesn’t take a genius to jump to the next conclusion.

“Like my dad,” Keith adds, ignoring the fact his voice wavers over the last word. No matter how many times he tries to avoid this, he always succumbs to the burning eyes, the way his throat tightens and his bottom lip trembles.

Every time without fail, he’s back in the moment when he was young and realized he was truly alone. Only difference now is his mother is right across from him.

Krolia nods, solemn.

“And you left me,” Keith steamrolls on, his chest tightening the longer he stares at her, but the lid’s been upturned and all he can do is let everything spill out before them. “Left _us_. Did you even feel bad about it?”

“I did,” Krolia answers. “Every day.”

“You didn’t even leave a note! A goodbye, _nothing_ —“ Keith sits up, continues without a beat: “Imagine what that must’ve felt like.”

To his benefit, Krolia doesn’t answer him, and Keith continues because at this point he can’t stop.

“Growing up going foster home to foster home and wondering why your own mom didn’t want _you_ ,” his eyes feel far too wide, as if he’s gone unhinged. Everything in his mind is swirling and all he can do is sprint with it. “Pushing people away before they get the chance to leave you.” Faces pop up into his mind, punctuating each word to the point Keith clamps his eyes shut and physically shakes the images of his abandoned friends away.

“This is my fault,” Krolia responds without break, without any attempt to defend herself or explain away her actions. Probably for his benefit, because he knows himself and knows that would have ended in him baring his teeth. “I knew there was a chance you would always hate me if I left, but I had to. To protect the universe, and the ones I loved who lived in it.”

Suddenly they’re face to face, Keith never realizing the moment Krolia stood up until he noticed the ache in his neck from lifting his chin to her, the wetness of his cheeks dripping down to his neck. He feels unbelievably small next to her, not only in height, but also in every aspect of himself.

“I can’t imagine what you must’ve gone through, Keith,” she says, her voice unbearably soft. Everything about her screams regret, even from the way she stares at him, like he’s her biggest failure in his life. “This doesn’t come close to okay, I am truly so sorry. For everything I put you through.”

Keith sniffles and lets out a half-broken sob, low enough it could be muffled and mistaken for his throat being cleared. _I promised myself I wouldn’t cry_ , Keith reprimands himself, already wiping away his hot, wet face. _This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen._

Unbelievably, he feels arms wrap around him, slow and careful, like he’s wild and untamed, testing the waters. Keith stiffens as he naturally does, the smell of sweat and drying blood sticking to his nostrils, but in a moment his whole body sags against her as he all but nearly collapses into her, as if his body has finally given out to the exhaustion. His arms hang half at his side, unsure where to put them, not sure if he even has the strength to wrap them around his mother, but lets himself cry against the nook of her shoulder.

“I said what I said and I meant it, Keith,” Krolia mumbles into his hair, and he closes his eyes as he feels her warm breath tickling his scalp. He had a dream about this once. “I left you once. I’ll never leave you again.”

For the first time in Keith’s life, he hopes she means it.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm on tumblr @mixedlance if you ever want to geek out over season 5 kbye. leave kudos/comments if you liked it!


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